Constructive Ambiguity

Avoid Ambiguity Unless Appropriate Occasionally, it is acceptable to make vague statements, because the information at hand is incomplete or inconclusive. Vague descriptions of quantitative facts are not acceptable.

Here, the word several is vague but appropriate, assuming that we cannot be completely certain of how many species are present.

Several thousand species of beetle can be found in the rain forests of Indonesia.

There is no need for ambiguity here, since the spliceosome is a compleely-described complex.

The spliceosome is composed of several snRNA subunits.

The spliceosome is composed of five snRNA subunits.